The present invention relates to a method for constructing a building using poured-in-place concrete-tunnel construction methods. The present invention is especially applicable to buildings having a distinct superstructure and substructure. More particularly, the present invention provides a method for constructing such a building without the need for a load transfer deck. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method for spacing and extending load-bearing walls in the superstructure and the substructure such that load-bearing members in both structures are vertically aligned.
Construction of buildings using tunnel forming has been utilized for many years in the construction of multistory concrete buildings. Tunnel forming allows the walls and floor of a certain level of the building to be poured simultaneously. This method greatly reduces the costs associated with multistory concrete construction. There are many structures used in the tunnel forming process, such as those that are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,439,064, 4,261,542, and 3,979,919, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
When designing and constructing multistory structures it is often desired to incorporate several levels of parking spaces into the structure. As an example, it has become commonplace to construct buildings in which several floors of residential units are constructed above some number of floors of parking garage. The architect or designer must take into account the load bearing requirements of both the parking garage and of the residential units. The limitations on the arrangement of load-bearing members in a parking garage are very different from the limitations on the arrangement of load-bearing members in a series of residential units.
Parking garages must typically provide accessible parking spaces in units that are approximately equal to an integral multiple of a standard car width. In order to avoid excess costs associated with larger spans, the integral multiple is typically small, e.g. two or three. Thus, relatively inexpensive parking garages will have parking bays that are two or three car widths wide. In addition, wide access lanes are needed to allow cars to enter and exit the parking spaces. In addition, it is often desirable for security reasons to allow transverse visual access to the parking bays. Thus, there are several mechanical, cost, security, and other constraints on the positioning of vertical load-bearing members in a parking garage.
At the same time, it is often desirable to configure residential units in a manner that is not constrained by the configuration of the load-bearing members in levels below the residential unit. If the layout of the load-bearing members in the residential structure does not vertically align with the layout of the load-bearing members in the underlying parking structure, it is necessary to provide a transfer deck.
Transfer decks are well known in the art and comprise rigid planar structures that allow vertical loads to be transferred from load-bearing members on one side of the transfer deck to non-vertically-aligned load-bearing members on the other side of the transfer deck. Because the transfer deck is subjected to very large shear and bending forces, it is typically quite massive and therefore expensive.
A primary objective of one embodiment of the present invention is to eliminate the transfer deck therefore decreasing costs of construction.
Another objective of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide advantageous layouts to both a parking garage and to residential units while keeping load-bearing members in vertical alignment.
Yet another objective of one embodiment of the present invention is to reduce the costs associated with construction of a building that integrates a substructure and a superstructure with substantially different configurations.
Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a building system in which the substructure and the superstructure utilize the same construction methods and materials (forms), thus further reducing costs and time of construction and making it possible for a single work team to construct the entire building.